James Robert Granville Exley was a painter, printmaker and teacher. Born at Great Horton, Bradford, Yorkshire. Educated at Bradford Grammar School; studied at Slipton Art School and at the Royal College of Art under Sir Frank Short, graduating in 1907. After working in Paris he was appointed Principal of Cambridge School of Art, 1909-12 and headmaster of Hull Municipal Art School, 1912-19. He moved to London in the 1920s and exhibited at the Royal Academy, Redfern Gallery and the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and was elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1923. He specialised in natural history subjects, the countryside and portraits. He lived in London and latterly in Grassington, Yorkshire. His work is held in the V&A Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the National Trust as well as the British Museum.